A.U.D.I.T. AZ

Sunday, August 22, 2010

ON MONDAY 08/16/2010 EMERGENCY LAWSUIT FILED TO FORCE MARICOPA COUNTY ELECTIONS DEPARTMENT TO FOLLOW THE LAW TO PROTECT UPCOMING ELECTION RESULTS FROM ELECTION FRAUD

Pre-election research over the last three weeks (based on the work of AUDIT AZ since 2006) discovered flagrant ILLEGAL violations of Arizona Election Laws [2]. The interlocking pattern of deliberate subversion of these security measures indicated below makes manipulation of vote counting easy, thus leaving elections vulnerable to undetectable fraud:

Arizona Election Law requires pollworkers to sign poll tapes at the conclusion of the ballot count.[3] Maricopa Elections has removed the signature line and changed pollworker manual to remove instructions for pollworkers to sign the poll tapes printed by the precinct electronic voting machines.[4]
Maricopa Elections Dept. has prevented properly credentialed party observers from observing the central tabulator systems.
Maricopa Elections Dept. has been connecting to and distributing election data over the Internet, in violation of Arizona law.[5]
Maricopa Elections Dept uses uncertified software on the certified voting systems. These are listed in AZ law specifically as felonies.[6]
Maricopa County blocks the public from knowing the vote totals at the precinct, instructing pollworkers to withhold results and prevents any observers from photographing the machine totals.[7] This is in open violation of AZ law. In contrast Pinal County posts the “results tape” on the front door of each polling location. [8]
Maricopa County ordered their pollworkers for all recent elections not to place the polltapes produced by the electronic voting machines (“results tapes” that should, by law, be signed) into the sealed “official returns envelope”. This sealed envelope is to be preserved in case of a challenge.
Maricopa Elections Dept. orders their pollworkers to return critical ballot materials (the “memory cartridge” electronic ballot boxes) from the polling places at the end of election day with one person only.[9] AZ law requires two persons to be assigned this task, one from each party.[10]
Maricopa Elections Dept reports election results, combining by mail-in, precinct and provisional voting. It is easier to tamper with election results either by the precinct or mail-in votes; tampering with both to make them more or less equivalent in terms of the percentage of fraud is difficult. If a candidate or issue wins a large majority in one type of voting and loses in the other, it’s a strong indicator of election tampering. Maricopa County combines all the data into one total to avoid raising any inquiries into discrepancies.

These Points “Interlock” To Make A Complete Election Fraud Recipe. If observers aren’t allowed to see the precinct data either on election night (point 5 above) or afterwards (8), and are blocked from seeing what goes on at the central tabulator (2) when it gets there on systems connected to the internet (3) on unknown, untested and illegal software (4) and the one reliable record available of precinct results (polltape) isn’t signed (1) OR put in a sealed bag for later review (6), then it’s not a proper election. The only thing left to call it is “illegal” – and that’s what we will present to a judge.

Arizona law has set the conditions for any full recount to be the most difficult in the nation: recounts are automatically generated only when there is a 1/10th of 1% or smaller difference in election totals between two candidates or issues. Florida is the only other state that is close to this standard, and their required percentage spreads are less stringent. A candidate challenge is impossible, even if the candidate pays for it. This is a recipe for un-auditable election fraud [11].

A pattern is emerging in AZ elections. In the case of the Maricopa LD20 (Sept 2004) election,[12] Election Director Karen Osborne testified that an 18% error rate on optical scanning machines was within the accepted error rate for those machines! This same election fiasco resulted in ballots being confiscated by the FBI and never properly investigated. Regarding the Pima County court case about the disputed RTA election, a court ordered examination of the stored poll tapes from the RTA election of May 2006 showed that 44% of them were missing or didn’t match the official results.[13]

The Maricopa County Elections Department is responsible for the counting 56% of the total votes of the state of Arizona. Thus, subversion of the elections in Maricopa could easily result in changing the election results for the entire state in a statewide election. Therefore, a group of concerned citizens from five AZ counties, as individuals in Arizona, have filed a request for an emergency hearing to ask the court to force remedies for these violations of the law before the upcoming election on the 24th of this month. This Special Action Relief request asks for an expedited hearing to assure the upcoming election will follow election law to assure accurate results in this and all future elections in the state of Arizona. Other relevant links: [14] [15]

Our complaint cites each violation, referring either to Arizona law or the May 2010 edition of the state-standard election procedures manual.[16]

Contacts:

John R Brakey

520-578-5678

Cell 520-339-2696 Email: AUDITAZ@cox.net

Jim March

916-370-0347

Email: 1.Jim.March@gmail.com

Pinal county posts their "results tape" on front door of polling location.

This is not the USSR where Joe Stalin said: It’s not who cast the vote that count; it’s who count the vote that counts!

Electors’ v Purcell - 11 Motion supplemented.pdf: http://tinyurl.com/263cc8f
Report by John Brakey and Jim March, “Unlawful Actions of the Maricopa County Elections – A Partial Compendium of Sins.” August 17, 2010: http://tinyurl.com/2ej5egk
AZ Secretary of State’s procedures manual see page 144 & 145. This publication is available at: http://www.azsos.gov/election/Electronic_Voting_System/2010/Manual.pdf
Maricopa County Elections Pollworkers Manual - see page 41: http://recorder.maricopa.gov/pdf/ebworker_trainingManual.pdf
“Election Management System Security” on page 87, items 6 and 7. This publication is available at: http://www.azsos.gov/election/Electronic_Voting_System/2010/Manual.pdf
The Sequoia Ballot Preparation/Printing System (BPS) – Does It Need To Be Certified by Tom Ryan, Ph.D. Arizona Citizens for Fair Elections: http://tinyurl.com/25wsqn6
Maricopa County Elections Pollworkers Manual see page 41: http://recorder.maricopa.gov/pdf/ebworker_trainingManual.pdf
Pinal county pollworker manual - see page 23: http://pinalcountyaz.gov/Departments/Elections/Documents/Downloads/Poll%20Worker%20Reference%20Manual.pdf
Maricopa County Elections Pollworkers Manual - see page 42: http://recorder.maricopa.gov/pdf/ebworker_trainingManual.pdf
AZ Secretary of State’s procedures manual - see page 144. http://www.azsos.gov/election/Electronic_Voting_System/2010/Manual.pdf
To get a good overview of the problems with elections in Arizona, it’s important to read the resolution with background information written by attorney Bill Risner and passed by the AZ Democratic Party Jan 23rd 2010: This report tells it like it is from a seasoned attorney with 42 years of experience on how bad the election systems is, it’s a must read if you care about elections: http://tinyurl.com/27mw9jn
District 20 Recount Scandal Factsheet from AUDIT AZ: http://tinyurl.com/2bea8sh
The BRAD BLOG! 'EXCLUSIVE: Poll Tapes, Other Evidence Discovered Missing in Long-Disputed, 'Fixed' Arizona Election' at: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7946
ELECTORS v PURCELL-12 REQUEST FOR EXPEDITED HEARING; http://tinyurl.com/2fkbbr4
ELECTORS V PURCELL -13 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE; http://tinyurl.com/26ryqcg
AZ Secretary of State’s procedures manual: http://www.azsos.gov/election/Electronic_Voting_System/2010/Manual.pdf

Labels: Arizona election law, election fraud, election integrity, John Brakey, Karen Johnson, maricopa county

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Sunday, May 11, 2008

Arizona Elections Bills, Good & Bad

Our sister organization ACER has put together a list of bills currently in the Arizona Legislature regarding election integrity, Arizona election process and the Arizona Secretary of State elections manual. We need the support of citizens to make sure our elections are free from fraud and transparent to the public in Arizona. Their website lists 17 bills but since we have highlighted three in the past, we are going to do so again here:

SB1053 elections; counting center; observation. (Senators Gray and Blendu.) Adds a new provision to state law that all proceedings at the counting center shall be under the observation of a representative of a candidate for nonpartisan office, a representative of a political committee in support of or in opposition to a ballot measure, proposition or question. Current law specifies representatives of each political party and the public. The bill provides for observers in non partisan elections. Passed out of Senate Judiciary. SUPPORT
SB1395 ~~orders of protection; animals~~ strike all bill for elections (Senator Johnson) Creates provision for graphic scanning of 10% of early, provisional and polling place ballots for purposes on maintaining the transparency of the vote counting process. SUPPORT
SB1477 elections; manual audit revisions (Senator Johnson and Senator Gray) Expands the hand count from 1% to 2% or ten thousand for early ballots to conform with the 2% manual audit of the precinct-cast ballots. On Senate Judiciary agenda for 2-25-08. SUPPORT

ACER lists their support and opposition to the various 17 bills. AuditAZ supports the three aforementioned, and for the full 17, please click here.

When you review that list, you will aslo see another bill which we join ACER in opposing. The lawsuit the Pima County Democratic Party has filed against Pima County Board of Supervisors and the Elections Division and their "lost" tapes highlights why this bill will do more damage to our transparency of elections in Arizona:

HB 2364 election law amendments. (Representatives Crandall, Reagan: Adams, Konopnicki) Makes a number of changes to election law. Makes changes to the election date concerning a vacancy for a U.S. representative of Arizona. Makes changes to dates in the voter registration file concerning when a person can be moved to the inactive list and eventually removed. Eliminates of ARS 16-445 Section 11 E. Specifically strikes this language: Each program tape or disc or any other material submitted to the secretary of state shall be returned to the county, city or town within six months after the close of the election for which it was submitted except: 1. When a court ordered recount is pending. 2. When a restraining order is in effect. 3. When any other legal action is pending. The bottom line is that these changes could bolster the argument that no one can examine what is sent to the Secretary of State. The material sent to the Secretary of State would have been important to the Pima County Democratic Party's examination of fraud in the RTA election. That material was sent back to Pima County where it "disappeared." Subsection A would not require Pima County to destroy evidence because the Secretary of State would destroy it for them. Passed out of House Judiciary 2-21-08. OPPOSE

Labels: Arizona election legislation, Arizona elections, Karen Johnson, State legislature

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Monday, March 10, 2008

Contact your Senators for Support

YES We COUNT!!

Tell Arizona Legislators to Move These Bills Forward For Transparent Elections!

Find your House and Senate Members at www.azleg.gov

Log in to Request to Speak On the Record to Legislators via the Internet.

http://alistrack.azleg.gov/rts/login.asp

Sign up at Tucson Legislative Ofﬁce 520-398-6000 for a user name and password

SB 1053

Expands right of candidates and political committees to send observers to provide oversight for nonpartisan elections. (Former State Rep. Ted Downing worked with Sen. Chuck Gray to write this bill. Contact Sen. Gray at cgray@azleg.gov (602)926-5288

SB 1395

Legalizes Graphic scanning of early, provisional ballots and 10% of polling station votes. Graphic ballot images can be burned to a single-use disk and/or placed on a website. This bill would make it possible for Pima County to implement its proposal for scanning that was opposed by the Secretary of State. (Sen. Karen Johnson is the sponsor of strike-all bill that originally was for orders of protection for animals). Contact Sen. Johnson at kjohnson@azleg.gov (602)926-3160

SB 1477

Allows political parties to do logic and accuracy tests using their own marked ballots. Improves auditing procedures. (Dr. Tom Ryan, www.azfairelections.org spearheaded this bill sponsored by Sen. Karen Johnson and Sen. Linda Gray. Contact Sen. Johnson
kjohnson@azleg.gov (602)926-3160 and Sen. Gray lgray@azleg.gov (602) 926-3376

Labels: Arizona election law, Arizona election legislation, Chuck Gray, Karen Johnson, Linda Gray

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